Turn off the lights
by Loaf Of Bread
Summary: a CroNea thingie i started writing last night at 2am on my ipod. Sorry if it's ooc, i'm trying my best! Note: despite what the title might suggest, nobody dies!
1. Chapter 1

It's been sweeps, but Aranea still remembers that period in which Cronus has been a different troll, in which he wasn't completely fending for himself and the waves of his impulses. There was a time when he was very different, in which he used to spend most of his time locked up in his library and study, study hard until his back felt creaky and he had to quint to be able to read behind his rimless glasses.

He didn't use to wear that t-shirt and a pair of jeans, no, he wore much more than that: his fingers were enhanced with he most beautiful silver and golden rings, his earfins were decorated with two sober purple stones pierced where everybody could see them, and his outfit was... Peculiar. Not that the one he wears nowadays isn't noteworthy, but that dark royal purple vest, with the golden buttons and the white shirt that fell perfectly on his arms, down to his wrist, the black coat that vaguely rasembled a cape, well... That was completely another league.

They hadn't played the game yet. None of them was expecting anything as traumatizing as how it turned out to be, they were all pretty content with their lives as teenagers. Mituna was the most snarky of them, Kankri was more approachable, while Aranea and Porrim weren't having a good time, much like Rufioh and Damara. Actually, the first mentioned couple had already broke up, and both the ladies were recovering, each in her own way.  
Aranea tried to contact Meenah, but she was having her own personal problems, so she decided to not be in the tyrantblood's way and just locked up in the library of the Royal Palace, since the Empress was a kind troll and let her people use her own chambers when in need.

Aranea was -and still is- a sucker for adventure books: reading of those fantastic love stories, those heroes and knights and witches and princesses and princes simply made her walk on cloud nine and forget about all her troubles for a while. Cronus, on the other hand, was in that same library because his guardian kept telling him to apply more on scientific studies, stuff that had a reason to exist and that wasn't pure speculation.  
He was, in fact, trying to find a tome that had been assigned to him, but his mind was completely elsewhere as he looked everywhere for it. Why did he have to study such boring things, when he could've been studying much more interesting notions, such as how to make butterflies turn into delicate hummingbirds?

Aranea still remembers that day, because it was one of the few times where life gave her a pleasant surprise while she was moping in a closet pushed far inside her mind, not reachable by anybody. She was sitting at a table, one of those huge ebony tables that smelled of wax and honey, reading the umpteenth book about her favourite stories. She was surrounded by books that she didn't pick, but that have been left there by unknowns. She felt a tap on the shoulder that made her turn around.

"Excuse me, are you going to read those books?" it was a purpleblood, and she never saw him before. She turned back to the books to inspect them.  
"No, they were already here when I sat down. You can take them, if you need them"

The other troll smiled, showing his sharp fangs. "Excellent! I really needed this one" he picked a thick tome, and Aranea could read the title very well. it was about science. Intriguing!  
"Do you like reading this kind of books?" she politely inquired, looking at the other.  
He looked back at her. "In all honesty, I don't. Actually, I hate them like a war ship hates a pond: they unnerve me, make me want to roll my eyes until they fall out of my skull and go on an adventure by themselves. Since I'm trapped here to study, I think that if they could, my eyes should absolutely go on a trip and then come back to me, so I can forever print in my think pan the marvellous things they've seen"

Aranea didn't quite understand what kind of similarity that was, but something in the way he pronounced those words told her she had a writer in front of her. An intellectual like her. She was... Amazed.  
"Mind if I sit here?" he asked, and she scooted away with a smile.  
"Of course not" they shared one last smile, before opening their books and read.

After that, they met quite frequently. Sometimes Cronus walked up to her, other times it was the opposite, but all in all, who made the first step mattered very little. What truly mattered was that they had begun to walk together.

The first steps were easy: they chatted, met out of the library, shared their knowledge and plans for the future. Aranea wanted to become a writer, or an historian; Cronus's dream was to become a grade-A wizard, or, as back-up plan, a musician.

The path then became more complex, because they understood what was really going between them. It was painfully obvious, actually. They couldn't stay much time without the other, they needed to have somebody trustworthy and as sensible as them by their side. They could just share glances, and Beforus seemed to have a sense again.

They had become matesprits.

One would've never believed it, yet there they were, sharing their happy embraces and tender kisses. They pestered each other on daily basis, and they inevitably ended up mixing their quirks, Cronus taking Aranea's habit to replace capital B's with '8's and Aranea replacing capital V's and W's with 'WV's. Their guardians didn't approve much of their matespritship, mostly because they hated each other, maybe even in _that_ way, but the fact is: they weren't supposed to be together. They didn't care though, because they were as happy as can be.

When the game started, things went downhill. Cronus started changing, he became short-tempered and aggressive, he was like a beast who just broke out of his chains that had taken a bite of freedom and that now wanted to eat the whole prey.

"I know that's what I need to do"  
"Cronus, you're crazy" It was a starry night. They were stargazing those fake stars he made with his magic stick.  
"Aranea, I already told you and I don't like to repeat myself" he dryly said, laying down. She kept her eyes on the shining dots on the pitch black sky.  
"And I already told you this 'Lord' is too powerful for you, he's too powerful for anybody, even admitting he exists"  
"God, you sound like my dead guardian" he muttered, arms behind his head. Aranea sighed: it was pointless to argue with him anymore, they had this talk plenty of times before.  
"Fine... Just turn off the lights now. Let's rest" she laid down next to him, nestling by his side.

The last thing she saw was her matesprit's hand move over the fake sky to tenderly capture in his palm the lights that he had sprinkled before to lighten up the dark night.


	2. Chapter 2

"Cronus..."  
"Mh?"  
"I don't want you to go" Aranea murmured, her face resting on her matesprit's chest.  
"I know you don't, but I'm the only chance of winning this party has got" he replied, combing his partner's silky hair with slow motions of his wrist.  
"There must be another way" she sighed the words, holding him tighter. He rolled on his side, resting his head under Aranea's chin, just the way she liked.  
"I'm afraid here isn't" he whispered, placing his free hand on her naked hip. Their pant-less legs were entangled together. There was a thick, cold silence around them.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his wavy hair, letting out distressed, yet soft noises from the back of her throat. He sighed, patting her back.  
"Now now, sweetie! I will be fine" he smiled against her bosom, kissing her shoulder "I promise I'll come back safe and sound. Now let's sleep... This one pailing session's been challenging~" he snickers, earning a slap behind the head.  
"Meanie!" she pretended to pout, but then relaxed and nestled against him.

They were both highbloods, being hot has never been a quality that belonged to them, yet, when they were together like that, nothing felt warmer or safer. Bodies tangled together, arms resting on each other's torso and faces touching, even in their sleep. They really were into their matespritship and nothing could separate them.  
Or at least they thought so.

* * *

The fight with this enemy that only Cronus knew about brought nothing but troubles. He was found half-dead, laying on the ground, surrounded by his own blood and some red splashes coming from his enemy's wounds. He couldn't breath, the neck gills Aranea loved to tickle were torn and irrecoverable, copious amounts of blood were running from a cut that went from his temple to the spot in correspondence of his mid-eyebrow.

He was rescued just in time, before it was too late. He slept for days, and those days then turned into a week. Aranea never left his side, on the contrary, she often talked to his unconscious body, she read him his favourite stories and sang for him too, when the discomfort was too much.

After a week, he finally woke up. His face was the face of a castaway who can't believe he was strong enough to reach land once again, and the first thing he saw was his matesprit. She gasped and took his face in her hands, calling his name over and over. He was a bit confused, he didn't understand all the kisses that were raining on his face. Why was she doing that?

Aranea noticed his stiffness, she hadn't heard him call her name at all, it was like he suddenly forgot everything.  
"Cronus?" she knitted her brows a little, gazing in his eyes. He blinked.  
"Aranea...?"  
"How are you?" she sat next to him, worried to the bone. His face was still in her hands.  
"I... Feel sore pretty much everywhere. What happened?" it was Aranea's turn to be confused, now.  
"Well... You said you were going to engage a fight with somebody, but you didn't want to tell me much about it, where you were going or when, or against who you were fighting. Do you remember anything?" she tentatively asked, stroking under Cronus's eyes with her fingers.  
Cronus furrowed his brows "I... Don't remember anything... Why are you stroking me like this?" he rised a brow, shifting his glance from Aranea's hands to her face "You're making me rather uncomfortable" he said, with a hint of annoyance.

Aranea gasped softly, trying to hold herself back, but in the end she let go of him.  
"I apologize. Do you remember anything from the time before your encounter with your 'enemy'?" she inquired, worried for him.  
He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head "Almost nothing. My temple hurts..." he ran his fingertips on the patch where his double wounds were, and hissed hard "Shit! How did I get these?" he looked up to Aranea, maybe hoping for an explanation, but she hadn't got any. She shook her head slightly, meaning that she didn't know, either.

"Do you remember how many players our game session has got? And if so, our friends' names?" she really wanted to know if he had forgotten about their matespritship, but she figured that she had to take little steps, so it was better to start from basic questions about what he remembered.  
"I think I do. We're 12, and... There's me, you, Meenah, Mituna, Latula..." he laid more inside his recuperacoon looking at the ceiling "Kankri, Porrim, Kurloz and Meulin... Oh, Rufioh and Horuss too. Am I correct?" he shifted his gaze on Aranea, catching her nodding with a small smile.  
"Yes. Do you also remember who is in a relationship with who?"  
"Uh... Why?" he frowned, making an evidently bothered face "Do you always speak so much, or do you ever close that mouth and shut the hell up?" Aranea looked at him in shock, but seeing as Cronus wasn't replying to her discomfort, seeing as he wasn't apologizing or soothing her, she simply looked down.  
"Sorry. I will now leave you alone"and with that she stood up, heading out of his room.

* * *

It took Aranea a long while before Cronus finally remembered everything. She had to use all her patience, and more often than not she felt on the point of giving up, but unfortunately for her, she couldn't forget all the great days she's spent with her matesprit, all the tricks she showed her to conquer her heart, all the promises they made each other. She simply couldn't.

When they died, Cronus got interested in humans. She found it a peculiar choice of interest, but she wasn't against it. She understood that Cronus needed something new to focus on, seeing as whenever magic was mentioned or brought up in any conversation he cringed and walked away. She completely understood and supported him, because she wanted him to be happy.

"Tell me more about this 'vinyl'?" it's night, and both of them are laying inside Aranea's recuperacoon. She's holding up a vinyl, and Cronus is resting his cheek on her shoulder.  
"See these thin grooves, doll? You put the pin of the record player on the first one, so the vinyl is read and the music can be played. Easy! It's the ancestor of our modern CD's." he takes the vinyl out of Aranea's hands, placing it on the nightstand next to the cocoon."You're so silly when you call me doll, you know that?" she chuckles lightly, nestling against her rediscovered matesprit. He runs an arm under her shoulders, settling his hand on her shoulder.  
"I try my best. Now what about you turn off these lights?" he rolls on his side, placing a featherlight kiss on Aranea's neck.  
She hums, smiling "Alright. Sleep tight, Cronus" she brings her hands out of the slime to clap them, and in a second, the lights are turned off. Everything is now dark and quiet around them, only the slime glows of a dim green light.  
"Same to you" he breathes out, before pressing a kiss on her lips and finally fall asleep.


End file.
